Pink Noise

How many times have you spent a sleepless night? The sure answer is "a lot". Technology advances to make life simpler, not only during the day but also at night.

A new application used by NASA astronauts will help you fall asleep while also being good for your health. Sleep Genius is a revolutionary application for iOS and Android users.

This application emits pink noise, a continuous sound of low frequencies with a proven somniferous effect in the brain. During the night, you program an alarm that is most convenient for you, and in the morning you will wake up refreshed, without any kind of stress. When it comes to waking up, Sleep Genius does not use an annoying alarm, but gradual sounds that allow you to wake up naturally, without leaving your dream abruptly. Don’t abuse the application or... 

If you think that's its only function, you're wrong. It doesn't only only help you to fall asleep. During the day many people are stressed because they not only have a lot of work or responsibilities, but the fast pace of life does not allow them to rest well. The application also includes a feature that helps you relax and reduce stress thanks to the pink noise (great for times of exams hahah).

What do you think about this new method for sleeping or relaxing? Would you use it? See you on the next blog!

Porto

Porto is a beautiful city located in the northwest of Portugal.  This city is full of interesting places to visit.

One of the most visited places is the cathedral. This gothic cathedral is amazing, the outside is enormous and beautiful, but the inside is breathtaking. It is decorated by an amazing number of arches, and the walls are covered with incredible paintings.

The bridge of Don Luis I is an amazing architectural work. It was designed by Gustave Eiffel, so it has some similarities with the Eiffel tower.

The “Casa da música” is an amazing  newly- built, amazing auditorium. A lot of important musicians and dancers act there, it is the perfect place to visit if you like music but you will have to reserve your tickets because this auditorium is always full.

The Duero is an amazing river that crosses the city, you can see it from one of the many bridges that are in the city. You can also see its amazing river mouth where the crystalline water of the Duero mixes with the ocean.

The place I found most interesting is the Lello library. It´s a breathtaking library considered the most beautiful in the world by several newspapers, travel brochures and by me. It is located in the historical centre of the city and  it was built in 1869. It is said that the amazing author of Harry Potter: J. K. Rowling was inspired by this library to create the magical world of Harry Potter.

If you are an art lover or if you like to be amazed by incredible, historic places, you have to visit Porto.

Nature Through the Seasons

Nature is always present, but it isn’t boring because it is changing all the time. Let’s go to a trip in Soria through nature along the year! 

Temperature decreases, take your clothes because it’s… WINTER!

 

Many people use this season to rest and stay at home, near the chimney but, are we hibernating animals? We are too young to do this. We must put on our skis, and enjoy the snow. Some teenagers need to travel long distances to access to famous ski resorts, however in Soria we are lucky because we have Santa Ines’ Ski Resort, where you can find marvelous views, covered by snow. Because of this, several winter competitions are held every year in the surrounding forests. Last Sunday there was a triathlon competition in which participants had to ride a bike, run six kilometers and ski. Everything in nature!

Bye bye snow, hello flowers…SPRING is coming!

During this season you can have a picnic on the field or spend the night in a shelter with your family and friends. Many villages celebrate some of their traditions in nature, for example in my village we meet during the second Saturday of May every year. We walk through the forest until we arrive at a flat where there is a church and we spend the day there eating and enjoying with our families. We try to pick up as much waste as possible when the feast ends. However, not everybody respects nature, and if we continue like this, we’ll destroy our own landscape in a few years. If I were as politician in charge of the enviroment, I would organize excursions at the weekends to collect rubbish in nature. What would you do?

Hot, swimming pool, holidays, beach, ice creams… SUMMER is here!

If you hate overcrowded places or being splashed in the swimming pool, you can find your place in nature to relieve from the heat. Take your bicycle, and search for a small pool in the river. In spite of the frozen water, you can get cold surrounded by nature. Maybe you are thinking that you can do more things in swimmingpools than here, but you are wrong, because rivers are shallow so there is less risk of drowning. Besides, like you are in nature, you have more freedom without people watching you. This is the best place for shy people!

Bare trees, brown, yellow and red colours, fields covered by leaves… AUTUMN arrives!

Nature brings us tourists who are attracted by mushrooms. In the past, only people from villages appreciated them, but in recent years the population of rural areas increases during this season, because of mushrooms tourism. Here are some tips not to damage the environment and to become the best mushroom collector. You must put them inside a basket, not in a plastic bag. In addition, it is necessary to cut them with a special penknife. Finally, since the biggest ones are usually hidden, you will have to remove the shrubs or search under the lumps on the soil.

I hope you have enjoyed this adventure through nature remembering the best things for every season. Since I don't want to bore you, perhaps we can see around in nature before our next post!

Driverless cars

Hey friends! How you are friends? I hope you are OK. Today I am going to write about science and technology, especially about driverless cars. I think that this topic is very interesting and you are going to learn a lot of things about it, because probably they are going to be the future of transport in the world.

To begin with, a driverless car is a vehicle that is able to percept, recognise the environment and navigate without human input. The technology of these cars is very advanced. They have a lot of sensors like the GPS or the speed one that is needed to control the speed of the car and to know the route that the car has to follow. One important advantage of these cars, is that they are electric, so you don´t have to waste petrol, which is very pollutant.

However, driverless cars still have to improve a lot of things. The most important thing is their safety. Nowadays, they don´t detect signals, pedestrians or bicycles, so the driver has to be really cautious and aware. They need to improve these sensors so that they can have a better security. Besides, the battery only lasts very little time, something they also have to improve so that they can have more autonomy. In the future they will add charging systems in fuel stations, so that people can recharge their batteries.

Currently, these cars are not available in the market, but in a short period of time they will be. They are being tested, because at the moment they can only be driven in highways but not in cities.

I hope you have enjoyed and you have learnt a lot of things about driverless cars. I will see you next week! Bye!

Quantum Computing

We know what a computer is and how it works, but we do not know what is quantum computing and its future applications. 

A quantum computer is a variation of a ordinary computer. Today's computers store information in bits, each bit can store a 1 or a 0. Quantum computing use qubits, which can store 1 or 0, but can also store between 1 or 0. Only very simple quantum computers have been built, so it is not developed nowadays. It uses quantum physics. The idea of quantum computing is still very new.in the experiments that had been done, a very small number of operations could done on qubits (the bit of quantum computing). Both practical and theoretical research continues with interest, many governments are currently developing this new technology for military and for civilian purposes.

If a powerful quantum computers can be built, it will be able to solve some problems much faster than any computer that exists today, but unfortunately nowadays we don not have such  computer.

What is your opinion about quantum computers? Do you think they are the future of technology? Please leave me the answers in the comments.

Goya Awards 2017

Don´t you all like films? They are a great way to enjoy your time. If you are a film lover then you would have seen the Goya award, the most important film awards in Spain. 

Last Saturday, 4^th of February, the actor and comedian Dani Rovira presented the Goya awards.

One of the most awarded film was A Monster Calls, it is based in the Patrick Ness´ book with the same name. It is a great chance if you want to spend your day crying and asking yourself about life aspects such as loneliness or getting older. It is one of the better Spanish films of 2016 and it has collected almost 28 million Euros all around the world. Its director, Juan Antonio Bayona, won the award for the best director.

The Fury of a Patient Man was also one of the most awarded films. It has not been as famous as A Monster Calls has been, but it has been awarded as the best film. This film is perfect for mystery lovers; it is also full of revenge, drama, rage and passion. 

Not only the films won awards, but also some actors. Roberto Álamo won the award for the best actor with Que dios nos perdone; while Emma Suárez won best actress with Juliet she also won the award for the best supporting actress with La próxima piel. Manolo Solo won the award for the best supporting actor with The Fury of a Patient Man 2016 has been a great year for the Spanish cinema; it has collected almost one billion Euros all around the world. Let’s hope 2017 to be as good as 2016, or better.

Downhill

Probably you have probably heard about the downhill. When you do it, you'll most likely think about all those crazy people who jump and descend mountains with their bikes doing amazing tricks and all that crazy stuff.

If you think like this, you are right. Downhilling consists on races along mountains. There are many types but usually, it consists of doing the “line” as fast as possible. The line is the path you have to follow. And doing as many tricks as you can on the way down the mountain.

One of the downhill paradises is Andorra. Many competitions are held there because of its beautiful and steep mountains, the sky roads are used in summer for the bikes. But the most known is the Red Bull rampage.

The Red Bull rampage is a competition made in the national park of Zion in the USA. This competition was created in 2002 and the judges give the riders the score depending on the line they choose, the amount of tricks and the time they last on the downhill.

For many people it’s the most dangerous sport in the world and it´s also one of the most shocking sports for the audience.
It´s not recommended to try this sport without a proper protection kit, a strong bike and many bike skills because if not it could end very badly. Take a look at it!